Angiostrongylus cantonensis and Giant African Snail which cause Eosinophilic Meningitis

Abstract

Achatina fulica is known as a plague that destroys crops. Given its excessive plant consumption this plague has caused environmental changes, creating an imbalance in the ecosystem. It is known that in America, A. fulica plays the role of a host for Angiostrongylus cantonensis, which causes eosinophilic meningoencephalitis (ME), abdominal and ocular angiostrongyliasis in humans by accidental infection. The following review was done with information of articles (national and international) from the PubMed, Ovid, Embase y Medline library, between 1997 and 2014. The human being is an accidental host of the parasite, where the nematode does not end its life cycle, which causes its death. It is therefore, the aggressive response performed by the host’s immune system (conducted by eosinophils and immunoglobulin) which brings about severe symptoms of inflammation, and subsequent clinical signs in man. Finally, although in the last decades much has been learnt about the infection with A. cantonensis, several concerns remain unresolved, such as the lack of methods to establish an early diagnosis and effective treatment of this zoonosis.